Hitler's Jewish Soldiers

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All Rise...

Judge Dylan Charles sees the paradox. Now he wants to see some discussion of the moral dilemma.

The Charge

"Warner Goldberg, the ideal German soldier, was a Jew."

The Case

Hitler's Jewish Soldiers exposes a minority population of the German
army during World War II; a group of men who are were only part Jewish and were
so drafted into the German army in spite of their Jewish heritage. Larry Price
interviewed four of these former soldiers to get at the heart of what he calls a
paradox.

As a broad and generalized overview of this historical oddity, Hitler's
Jewish Soldiers succeeds. It's an hour filled with bizarre little moments,
like the fact that one of these part-Jewish soldiers was used as a literal
poster boy, his picture gracing recruitment posters all over Germany showing him
as the ideal German soldier.

Each of the men is more than willing to talk about his part in the Wehrmacht
and how he ended up in such a position, and they all have anecdotes to tell
about their days in the army and afterwards.

Still, there's a lot missing here. As I stated before, this documentary is
only an hour long. The whole moral question of what these men did is not really
touched on at all. They talk to one of two scholars and a family member of one
of the former soldiers, but that's it for sources. Was there no one who was
unhappy that people with Jewish ancestry fought in the German army? The matter
isn't even really addressed, just quickly passed over.

One of the features is an interview the director had with an Israeli news
anchor, who seems to be having the same questions that I was having, but there,
too, Mr. Price was glossing over those issues. He seems more concerned with
displaying the paradox of a Jewish German soldier and is fine with leaving it at
that.

It's also a fairly low-budget documentary, which has lead to some pretty
shoddy production values. The music can get a little quirky at times, which is a
trifle disconcerting given the subject matter.

All in all, Hitler's Jewish Soldiers is guilty of taking a
compelling, multi-faceted, and interesting subject and then doesn't really go
anywhere with it. The most hard-hitting aspect of the documentary is the title;
from there, it's all pulled punches.